


Family Snapshot

by grey_sw (grey)



Category: Battlestar Galactica (2003)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-11-15
Updated: 2009-11-15
Packaged: 2017-10-02 21:06:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,781
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10716
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/grey/pseuds/grey_sw
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Like it or not, you are our sister. You are an Eight. A Cylon, like us." This fic is for megalomaniac2, who requested a fic about Athena's relationship with the Rebel Cylons during 4.5.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Family Snapshot

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to millari for beta reading!

"Helo, could you take Hera today?" Athena asked, as she was pulling on her flightsuit. Hera played at her feet, waving the toy Raptor her father had carved for her. "I'm supposed to run some of the Cylon repair crews over to the Zephyr, and then I've got a couple cargo runs."

"I can't, I've gotta take this week's Raptor roundup to the Old Man in half an hour," Helo said. "Can't we take her to day care?"

Athena frowned thoughtfully. "I guess so, if we have to."

"Hey, what's wrong? It never bothered you before."

"Yeah, well, we never had Cylons on board before. Did I tell you one of the Sixes actually asked me if Hera 'spoke God's word'?"

Helo snorted. "You shoulda told her the answer is 'no', unless God loves crayons and hates algae."

"I _told_ her to frak off and leave my family alone," Athena said. "But it drives me crazy, having them here."

"You don't think they'd hurt her, do you?"

She began to pace. "Not _hurt_, really, but they still make me nervous. You saw how she was when we got her back from the Basestar; the Cylons haven't got the first clue about kids. They think she's some kind of magic savior, and in the meantime they forget to feed her. And I still have that dream sometimes..."

"Hey, hey. I thought we'd agreed that was just a dream." He stepped forward, wrapping his arms around her.

"Yeah," she whispered, but she sounded as though she didn't quite mean it.

"C'mon, they're not so bad, right?" he said softly. "If anybody thought they were gonna hurt her, they wouldn't be here. The Old Man would never stand for that, whether we're spreading their goo all over the ship or not. Besides, they're your family."

Athena stiffened. "They are _not_ my family, Helo. You and Hera are all the family I'm ever going to want."

"Athena--"

"You'd better take her to day care," she growled. "Otherwise you're gonna miss your meeting." She turned and left, leaving him gaping at the open hatch. He glanced down at Hera, but she didn't seem to have picked up on her mother's mood at all; she was still scooting the little Raptor across the floor.

"Guess we'd better go, then," he muttered.

\---

Halfway to day care, the intercom crackled. "Captain Agathon to the C.I.C.," Lt. Hoshi's voice said. "Pass the word: Captain Agathon to C.I.C."

"Frak," Helo muttered. He pulled Hera up onto his hip, and started to jog. "Why'd they put the day care so far from the family quarters?"

He rounded the corner, and then skidded to a halt. Nurse Ishay was there at the door, wearing a white paper mask over her mouth.

"Ishay? What the...?"

"Sorry, Captain. You'll have to find somebody else to take her today. One of the students had a play date with a kid from the Pan Galactic, and she brought back pertussis again. We've got to swab down the whole day care before we can let anybody back in."

Helo took a step back, hugging Hera tighter. Many childhood diseases that had been almost entirely eradicated on the Colonies had returned amongst the crowded conditions of the Fleet; ship-to-ship travel meant that they'd pop up on one ship, run their course, and then show up on another ship a month later. Three months earlier it had been chicken pox, but Hera had been lucky, and had only gotten a couple on her back. Helo wasn't interested in chancing it again.

"All right, where else do we go?" he muttered, heading back up the hall. His first instinct was to ask Kara, but he was pretty sure she was flying CAP. He checked the officers' quarters instead, but nobody was in; most of the officers were either at Joe's or on duty during the early evening.

Swearing, he turned to head for the pilots' racks. He didn't much like the idea. Since the mutiny, he felt a bit uncomfortable with a lot of the rooks -- it was obvious they hadn't been in on it, or they'd be cooling their heels on the Astral Queen with the other mutineers, but Karl still wondered whether they'd known. His Raptor Wranglers were trustworthy, but he knew their schedules, and none of them were off. Still, he knew Hot Dog and Dragon well enough...

He poked his head into the rec room. Trip, Ruins, and Greyshirt were in there, playing Dead Man's Chest, but he didn't like the way they glanced away when they saw him. To make matters worse, the racks beyond them were empty.

"Frak!"

He turned, shifting Hera onto his back, and ran back up the hall. She wrapped her arms around his neck and giggled, enjoying their "game". _At this rate, I'm gonna end up in the C.I.C. with her,_ he thought. _That's never gonna fly. Col. Tigh will have me for lunch._

The intercom went on again. "Captain Agathon to the C.I.C., immediately," Hoshi said. He had the same trick Dee and Felix had had, where he kept his voice largely flat, yet threw in just the slightest note of _right **now**, if you please_. It made Karl shiver.

"Coming!" he yelled at the wall -- not that anybody could hear it -- and then dashed up the hall. Sickbay, maybe. Cottle might watch her, though Helo'd probably have to find a pack of cigarettes on the black market for him. But if that kid with whooping cough was there...

Rounding the corner, Helo nearly smacked into a group of Cylons coming the other way. He skidded to a halt, pulling up just short of them. There were an Eight, two Sixes, and a Two, all wearing splattered overalls. Before Helo could say anything, Hera waved.

"_Oh,_" said the Eight, instantly charmed. "She's so beautiful!"

"Uh, look, I'm kinda late..."

"We heard," one of the Sixes said. "Aren't you supposed to be in the C.I.C.?"

"Well, yeah, but I gotta find someone to watch her--" Helo began. Then he snapped his mouth shut. _Oh, no,_ he thought. _No way. I'm dead; she's gonna kill me._

"We could watch her," said the Eight shyly. "If it's OK with you."

Helo frowned. He wasn't as thoroughly opposed to the Cylons as Athena was, but still... the way they looked at Hera sometimes made him want to stand in front of her with a cudgel. Especially the Twos. This one seemed a little less intense than most, though; his gaze was more curious than anything else.

And they _were_ his wife's siblings, right? His own sister-and-sister-and-sister-and-brother-in-law?

"Agathon to the C.I.C., now!" shouted the wall. That decided things. _Col. Tigh_ was on the intercom, and Helo was in big trouble.

"Just take her," he sighed. "We live in the family quarters, deck C -- there's crayons and stuff in the room. All you have to do is let her play, give her juice from the fridge if she wants some, and make sure she doesn't run off or anything, all right? I'll be back in an hour. And for frak's sake, _don't let Athena see you_."

He handed Hera over to the Eight, who broke out in a smile so bright it almost made the ream-out he was about to get worth it. "Go with your aunts and uncle, Hera, OK? Just for an hour. Be good!"

"Bye, Helo," Hera said brightly. It made Helo feel a bit better; if _she_ wasn't upset, things'd probably be fine.

"She'll be all right," the Two said, in a manner which was not at all comforting. "God loves this one."

"_I_ love her," Helo replied, drawing himself up to his full height. "And if you hurt her, I'm never gonna rest until you pay."

"Of course we won't hurt her," said one of the Sixes, affronted. "She's very precious to all of us!"

"It's OK," added the Eight. "She's safe with us."

Helo took one last look at the comfortable way Hera was snuggled against the Eight, and finally nodded. "All right. I'll see you guys in an hour. Have fun, kiddo."

"Bye, bye!"

He turned and ran up the corridor. _I should've gone with the rooks,_ he thought.

Then he remembered how they'd looked at him, and decided otherwise.

Tigh spotted him the minute he got into the C.I.C. "Captain Agathon, where the frak have you been?!" he roared.

"Sorry, sir," Helo said, snapping to attention. "I was on my way here, but I couldn't find anyone to take Hera, sir."

Adama smiled wryly. "You should've brought her up here, we could use some young blood."

"The _frak_ we could! Agathon, your commission as an officer in this fleet _demands_ your attention despite your family-time _chickenshit_! It is _unacceptable_ to..."

Helo tuned him out, barked "yes, sir" and "no, sir" at all the right moments, and hoped that Athena was having an easier day.

\---

_They're not my family. They're not my family. They are **not** my family,_ Athena thought. Her knuckles were white on the Raptor's control stick, even in the red glow of the instrument panel. Behind her, the Six named Sonja and three Eights were seated in the passenger area, and she could feel their eyes on her.

"We missed you, sister," said one of the Eights.

_Sister._

"Hey, don't talk to the pilot!" Red Devil said from the ECO station. "Just sit back there and shut up, OK? We'll have you on the Zephyr in another minute." He gave Athena an uncertain look, but she ignored that, too, keeping her back parade-ground straight as she brought the Raptor in.

She made a textbook three-point landing on the Zephyr's cargo deck, just as she'd known she would. There was never, never a time when she couldn't, after all, never a time when the uncertain feeling in her gut as she tried to make the trap had led her to another callsign, another life. _She_ could land a Raptor; she could choose a side. She could marry Helo. She could have a baby.

She was Sharon Agathon. _Lieutenant_ Agathon. Sisters who said _we love you, Sharon_ were not a part of her life.

"I'll, uh, get 'em to sign the manifest," Red Devil said. Before she could stop him, he was out the door, leaving an awkward silence behind him.

"Sister..." the Eight started.

"Don't call me that," Athena snapped. "I'm not your damn sister."

The Eight fell into hurt silence. _And I'm not guilty about it, either,_ Athena told herself.

"You're wrong about that," said Sonja. She stood and leaned against the doorway, elegant as always. Athena rounded on her, glaring. "Like it or not, you are our sister. You are an Eight. A Cylon, like us."

"I'm a Lieutenant in the Colonial Fleet, and that's all I want to be," she said.

Sonja smiled. "Well, maybe that's all you want to be, but you should remember the first article of faith: that is not all that you _are_."

Athena stood up, jabbing her finger at Sonja. "Don't you dare tell me what I am. Look at you -- you don't even know what the hell _you_ are. Here you are, helping the humans, and for what? Are you really a part of this fleet? Are you in it for the long haul, no matter what? Or are you going to break and run the minute you get your hands on your precious Final Five?"

Sonja looked away.

"Yeah, that's what I thought. Listen, you gotta pick your side and stick with it to the end -- at least Cavil had that much right. I _am_ Sharon Agathon, wife of Helo, mother of Hera, and officer of this Fleet. That's who I am, and that's who I'm gonna be on the day I die... and I don't want any _sister_ who can't say the same thing about her own life, understand?"

"That's what we want," Sonja said quietly. "God, it's all we've ever wanted."

"Then you'd better make it happen," Athena growled. "You'd better figure out which side you're on _now_, because one day soon it's gonna be too frakkin' late." She shoved past Sonja roughly, clattering down the Raptor's ramp. "'Til then, I'm _not_ your frakkin' sister!" she shot over her shoulder.

Behind her, she could just hear the other Eights as they began to cry. She took a deep breath, squared her shoulders, and hardened her heart.

She didn't care.

She didn't have any sisters.

And she didn't hear them in the back of her mind: _we love you, Sharon. And we always will._

\---

When Athena finally got back from the Zephyr, she took one step into their room and froze. The whole place looked like Helo had gone on a cleaning jag -- the laundry was folded, the dishes were clean _and_ put away, the floor had been swept, the table was spotless, and the bed was made.

For frak's sake, they didn't even ever _make_ the bed!

"Helo?" she asked. He looked up from his paperwork with a smile.

"Hi, honey. You have a good day?"

"Not... really. Wow, what'd you do in here? You been taking stims or something?"

"Oh, um, course not. The day care was closed, so I found us some... babysitters. They clean, too."

"I noticed," she said dryly. "Hey, kiddo, what're you drawing?"

Hera grinned, and held up her picture so Athena could see it. She took it, and her breath caught. It was a pleasant little family portrait: seven figures running from a little grey-haired man through to Mommy on the end, with Helo and Hera drawn in next to her.

"No," she murmured. "No." A flicker of gold caught her eye; for a brief moment, it was as though their room was suddenly rich with filigree. She crumpled the paper violently, hurling it against the wall. Hera flinched, and began to cry.

"Hey, now," Helo said gently. "C'mon. She worked hard on that." He retrieved the paper, smoothing it out carefully. "It's OK, Hera, see? Mommy was just surprised."

"I was _not_ just surprised," Athena hissed. "How can she draw that? She shouldn't even know what they look like!"

"She was on the Basestar," Helo said. "She must have met them all. Besides..."

"What?"

"I, uh, think the babysitters might have reminded her."

There was a long silence.

"Helo. Please tell me you did not leave our baby with the Cylons."

"There wasn't anybody else," he said, frowning. "I didn't have a choice, OK?"

"For God's sake, Helo! Why didn't you just leave her in the _airlock_ then?"

"Hey!"

"...I'm sorry," she said. "I didn't mean that."

"It's OK," he muttered. "I guess I should've thought of something else. But it turned out all right, didn't it?"

She glanced at the paper in his hand. "You think so?"

Helo looked down at the paper, and sighed. "Yeah, I do. We're not gonna be able to hide this from her, Athena. This is her family; they're a part of her life. Do you really think we can just forget about it? Just act like it never happened?"

"I want to," Athena said softly.

"Yeah. I know. But you won't, because you're my wife... and in all the time I've known you, you've never been any good at pretending to be something you're not."

Athena stood there for a moment, stunned, and then turned away so he wouldn't see the tears in her eyes. He stepped forward and hugged her, gently, with Hera's family portrait still clutched in his hand. "It's OK," he said. "We've been through a lot together, haven't we?" She could hear the smile in his voice. "Compared to all that, this'll be cake, right?"

She looked down at her daughter, who was looking up at her with serious eyes.

"Yeah, OK," she said at last. "I'm sorry, honey. Your picture is really... nice. You wanna put it up on the fridge for me?"

Hera nodded. Athena forced herself to watch as her daughter smoothed the drawing out. She stuck it under a magnet, right next to the colorful swirly thing she'd drawn last week.

"See? No problem, right?" Helo asked.

Athena looked at the picture: a child's drawing of her family, of the people she'd been trying to deny for the past four years. She knew she could never forgive... but maybe, for Hera's sake, she could try to forget.

"All right," she sighed. "OK. But they are _not_ watching Hera again, got it?"

"Got it," Helo said. He frowned thoughtfully. "Guess I'll have to tell them to cancel next Tuesday."

"Helo!"


End file.
